"Kidz with Leukemia: A Space Adventure" CD-ROM

The development of the CD-ROM was funded by a Small Business Innovation Research Grant from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health.

Small Business Innovation Research Grants allow small private companies like The Degge Group, Ltd. to develop and produce needed products that would be too costly to fund completely in the private sector.  The NCI funds these projects to make materials available for relatively small populations, like children with malignancies.

In August of 1996 there were no commercial interactive CD-ROM products for children with leukemia and their families.  We wanted to create such a product using graphics, music, still photographs, animation and videos to present the content.  We also wanted the CD-ROM to be comprehensive in scope, engaging, and developmentally appropriate for preschool and school-age children as well as their parents.

Although our goal was to meet the learning needs of children ages 4-11, we are also aware that this product is likely to be of interest to siblings, peers who want a better idea of what their friends are going through, and school personnel -including school nurses.  Older children have expressed interest in the content although characters and some formatting were specifically geared toward a younger age group.  Such a product could also be helpful in debriefing children who are many years from the end of treatment and who have vague but perhaps inaccurate recollections of what occurred.

After each section of script was written, fourteen reviewers, including: pediatric oncology specialists, pharmacists, developmental psychologists, pharmacosociologists, multimedia designers and an adolescent with leukemia, edited the content for accuracy, developmental appropriateness, and readability. The content for the program addresses the needs expressed by all of the focus groups.

The formal evaluation phase of this study has been completed, and based on this evaluation, final changes to the CD-ROM have been made.  The CD-ROM is now available to the public, more detailed information on the content of the CD-ROM and ordering information can be found at www.kidzwithleukemia.com.